Barackface

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Reshma Saujani: Top 10 Women To Watch In America

I think it is remarkable that Reshma Saujani is on this list: Reshma Saujani Makes Top 10 List.

This is not just a list of Democrats, there are Republicans on the list. This is not just a list of people running for public office either, although most are. And this is no regional list. Call me an ignorant male, but I did not recognize any other name on the list. Or maybe I am not that ignorant. This is not a list of people who are big today but will be big tomorrow.

I would not be surprised if her Netroots Nation appearance played a small role in getting her on the list. (Reshma Saujani At The Netroots Nation) The list was put together by a blogger, I believe. It is possible the blogger saw her in action in Vegas and then dug up background information on her and got impressed.

I hear she was sitting on a panel next to the brother to the Founding Father of netroots in America: Howard Dean's brother Jimmy Dean.

Reshma 2010 has echoes of Obama 08 for me, although I am clearly biased as one of Barack's earliest people in the city, and one of Reshma's staunchest supporters. Let's start with their names. They rhyme: Obama, Reshma.

Obama 08 did not take any PAC money. Reshma 2010 is not taking any PAC money. (Barack Obama: The NRA's Candidate)

Obama 08 put a major emphasis on field organizing. Reshma 2010 has been doing the same and has been making remarkable strides, "street by street, block by block." This is urban warfare.

Obama went to two top schools. Reshma went to three top schools.

Obama's fundraising made Hillary 08 nervous. Reshma's fundraising on behalf of Hillary 08 made Obama 08 nervous. (There Is An Albert Einstein On The Obama Campaign Staff)

Obama's style rested on positivity. Reshma's style is excellence.

Obama has done as much for race relations as anyone in history, but he has done so without holding talk marathons on race. Instead he will go ahead and pump billions into inner city schools. Reshma will contribute to gender in similar ways. Major strides will be made, big things will get done, and it will all feel normal. But there might not be big, specific talks on gender. Reshma Saujani is the embodiment of the New Woman.

Reshma Saujani is The New Woman.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Reshma Saujani Makes Top 10 List

Source: Selma Times Journal

Sewell makes top 10 list before winning her race
Published 12:06pm Monday, July 26, 2010

Terri Sewell of Selma, the Democratic nominee for the 7th Congressional District seat, recently made the Next 10 Women to Watch in Politics in an online newspaper, PoliticsDaily.com

Columnist Patricia Murphy wrote the column the day before Sewell popped her competition, Shelia Smoot, in the Democratic primary to take the nomination. Sewell is No. 10 on the list.

Murphy notes “But no matter what happens, Sewell has already built a record of success that would have most high achievers calling it a day.”

She talks about Sewell’s Harvard education; her as the first black valedictorian at her high school. Sewell went to Princeton and named one of Glamor Magazine’s College Women of the Year — Oxford University in England and then her work as a corporate lawyer in New York and Alabama.

Others on the list:

1. Kristi Noem, the Republican nominee for the U.S. House from South Dakota; a member of the South Dakota House of Representaives.

2. Tarryl Clark, Minnesota state senator and Democratic Farmer Labor Party’s nominee for Minnesota’s 6th conressional district.

3. Ginni Thomas, She’s the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has founded a nonprofit lobbying and political-organizing group to appeal to people aligned with the tea party movement.

4. Alex Sink, is the top Democratic candidate for governor in Florida. She is originally from Mt. Airy, N.C. She is Florida’s elected state CFO and held that position since 206.

5. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the incumbent from Florida’ 20th congressional district. She’s a Democrat and well respected in the House.

6. Mary Fallin is a Republican member of Congress from Oklahoma. She’s running for governor of the state, and if elected would be that state’s first female governor.

7. Susana Martinez is a Latina Republican running for governor of New Mexico.

8. Jaime Herrera is a state legislator in Washington running for Congress to replace retiring Congressman Brian Baird.

9. Reshma Saujani is a Democrat running for Congress on the East Side of New York.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Barack Obama: The NRA's Candidate

Image via Wikipedia

I just did some thorough research online and have come to the conclusion that Barack Obama did not accept a dime of PAC money from the NRA when running for president in 2008. That makes Barack Obama the NRA's candidate, and progressives beware.

That has been the Carolyn Maloney camp's logic as applied to Obama 08.

Maloney has taken half a million dollars from the various Wall Street PACs. Reshma Saujani has not taken a dime from them. But that still has not prevented the Maloney campaign from working day and night to paint Reshma as the Wall Street's candidate.

That is downright dishonest. No wonder people stay so cynical of people in Congress. When Maloney does what she does, that makes the entire Congress look bad.

That is demonization. That has racial overtones.

John Liu, the next Mayor of NYC, was on Wall Street before he got into politics. Ends up that is a good thing. That means you are smart, you can get things done. (John Liu: Mayor Of NYC: 2013)

The Maloney camp needs to stop the lie. They need to stop feeding the lie to the media. They need to stop feeding the lie to Chris Mathews.

Ed Koch And Carolyn Maloney: Bush Democrats
Carolyn Maloney's Six Sins
I Am Angry At Chris Matthews
Reshma Saujani

Bhangra, Cricket: Exotic To Me

A painting of Bollywood legendary actors Amita...

Image via Wikipedia

Bhangra and cricket are very Indian. But they both remain exotic to me. I hear cricket is big in Nepal by now. But it wasn't when I was growing up. It was soccer, and volleyball in the hills. I am from the plains.

My mother's side of the family is Indian, Bihari to be particular. Because there are so many Indians out there, to claim the Indian identity is to claim humanity itself.

Getting my maternal uncles to read Nepali in their peculiar Indian accent was one of the fun things to do. Indians emphasize the syllables differently. Don't let the shared script between Nepali and Hindi fool you.

And in America, I have met a total of five Biharis so far. Meeting Indians in America is like meeting the French and the Germans and the British if you are perhaps Polish. The Tamils, Marathas, Gujaratis and Punjabis are all over the place. I have lost count of how many times some white person asked me, "Are you a Patel?" I have been left with the impression the Patels are a huge clan in America, perhaps the biggest of them all.

But the Indian identity is hugely scalable. I feel very Indian.

I was in Kathmandu in a boarding school for a decade of schooling. And I was living in Kathmandu right before I came to America. Eating dumplings is the best thing I learned in Kathmandu. (My Secret Sauce) A few weeks back I showed up at this place in Jackson Heights for some momo, Nepali word for dumplings. It is right by the train station on the way to Patel Brothers, same street. In the front you have a Bengali restaurant, in the back you have a Nepali/Tibetan corner. When I opened my mouth to order momo, the girl just burst out laughing. Later she explained she laughed because the idea of perfect Nepali coming out of a Bengali mouth was hilarious.

My first language is Maithili. Maithili and Bengali are the two languages closest to each other in the family of languages. I never actively learned Bengali but I can understand some of it. For my first few years in NYC, I lived in Little Bangladesh in Brooklyn, it is south of Prospect Park. I have walked every inch of that park.

When I would go out for grocery shopping, store owners would talk to me in Bengali. They simply assumed.

There are strong anti-India sentiments among the ruling elite of all small South Asian countries. But India is too big to do anything about it. And so who ends up bearing the brunt is Indian looking people who might be around, people like me. I feel like I had to come all the way to America to be able to claim my Indian identity.

I have never said no to the question Are You Indian while traveling through America's heartland/hinterland. For one, it's true. I was born in India, my mother is Indian, my hometown in Nepal is 10 miles from the Indian border. And it is a see through, walk through border. You simply walk over to India.

But I have not said no primarily to avoid having to explain who or what or where Nepal is. I prefer you google things up.

Once I met a Mexican who had never heard of India. "Too far? Too far?" He said. As in, is it so far away that I have never heard of it? But that is another story.

But even so you would routinely meet people who had that one Indian friend by the name of so and so. Would you by any chance know him/her? Over time I learned to give the right reaction. Say that one more time. Sorry, no, that name does not seem to ring a bell.

I am amused when Reshma Saujani gets referred to as a minority woman. There are so many of us, we are trying to control the population down there. Don't be calling us no minority.

One reason I like New York City so much is because it reminds me of both India and America at the same time. I love the city full package. Crowds, filth, everything.

Bhangra and cricket are exotic, Bollywood, though, is another story. I grew up watching Amitabh Bachchan.

Manhattan?

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Reshma 2010 Clean Tech Event July 27 Tuesday

Image of Reshma Saujani

NY: Energy and Innovation in the 21st Century: A Panel and Discussion

Hosted by the Reshma for Congress Innovation Advisory Board

Moderator:

Jonathan McClelland, Director of MJ Beck Consulting; President of the NY Association of Energy Economists

Confirmed Panelists:

Evan Conley, Business Development Director of Rentricity

John Humphrey, President of Sollega

Micah Kotch, Director of Operations, NYC ACRE (Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy) at Polytechnic Institute of NYU

Carl Liggio, Managing Partner at Pharos Enterprise Intelligence, LLC; formerly Director of Commercial Strategy and Alternative Energy Programs at US Power Gen

Amanda Parkes, Bodega Algae

John Reese, SVP, US Power Gen; formerly Sr Policy Advisor at NYS Public Service Commission; formerly VP Government/Regulatory Affairs at Reliant Energy

Tom Scaramellino, CEO of Efficiency 2.0

Reshma Saujani, Democratic Candidate for Congress (NY-14)

Mei Shibata, Co-Founder at ThinkEco Inc.

WHEN
July 27, 2010 at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
WHERE
Buzzd HQ
833 Broadway
Floor 3
New York, NY 10003

Recruited 60 For Reshma 2010

I was not even aware. I just happened by my personal dashboard on the Reshma 2010 website in the course of gathering info for the clean tech event Tuesday, and I saw for the first time that I had recruited 60 people to the cause. Heck, I am impressed. Looks like I can do more for Reshma 2010 by blogging than by making phone calls or knocking doors, all of which are important. All these recruits recruited themselves. They must have come to my blog and signed up on their own. I did not actively solicit, although I do recognize some friends on the list.

60 supporters
4 volunteers
2 donors
2-31 potential voters

I am impressed with myself. What can I say?

This blog does well when you do a search on the Reshma Saujani name. I hope I can send more supporters the campaign's way as we move closer and closer to September 14 and more and more people conduct searches on her name online.

The biggest catch has got to be Sree Srinivasan, who is the most networked Desi in New York City that I know of. Having Sree on board is a big deal, but not at all surprising. He is going to bring many, many others on board.

Reshma Saujani At The Netroots Nation

Our candidate is in Vegas attending the Netroots Nation. And the best way to follow her is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/reshma2010.

Netroots: Taking the Tea Party Seriously Wall Street Journal (blog) The convention founder, blogger Markos Moulitsas, told Washington Wire Thursday that the movement has evolved in to a more sophisticated operation. “I think we’re a key component in mobilizing people online, in funding a lot of candidates, and fueling a lot of grassroots energy that has allowed a lot of remarkable candidates to win a bunch of seats.”
Majority Leader Reid, live from Netroots Nation‎ Daily Kos (blog)
Reid praises progressives at Netroots convention‎ CNN
Progressives' next big fight: Elizabeth Warren‎ CNN Political Ticker (blog)
Netroots Nation: Strengthening Social Security AFL-CIO (blog)
Washington Wire Q&A: Markos Moulitsas‎ Wall Street Journal (blog)

Pages

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

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Monday, July 26, 2010

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

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